Page images
PDF
EPUB

V.-Note on the Fossil Bones of the Nerbudda valley, discovered by Dr. G. G. Spilsbury, near Narsinhpúr &c. By J. PRINSEP, Secretary, &c. (See Plate xxiv).

[Read at the Meeting of the 6th August.]

[ocr errors]

The circumstances of the discovery of the gigantic fossil bones now presented by Doctor SPILSBURY, were brought to the notice of the Society on the 30th October last*. I should feel inclined in pointing to these splendid trophies, to repeat the obligations of Indian geology to this eminent cultivator of the science, but that his modesty will not allow me to designate him geologist,' although his zeal and enterprise in the systematic prosecution of geological inquiries, and his continued success in making known these treasures of the ancient world, treasures which had escaped so long the diligent search of professed geologists, have fairly won for him all the fame that the most enthusiastic disciple of the Wernerian hammer could covet.

[ocr errors]

Dr. SPILSBURY's discoveries indeed forcibly exemplify the truth of the fable of "eyes and no eyes." As it was his conversation with the limeburner that first brought to light the existence of the Jabalpur fossil shells, so was it an humble native carpenter at Narsinhpúr from whom he obtained the knowledge of the giant at Segauní, which was followed up by an immediate visit to the spot, and the reaping of a rich harvest of discovery. Again, on mentioning these fossil bones to the medical officer stationed at Hoshangábád,” says Dr. SPILSBURY, in a private note to myself, “he told me there were plenty just below his house, and that he would shew them to me: off we went, and I flatter myself I brought away what you will deem a real acquisition-the head of a horned animal (buffalo?) imbedded in the stone. Dr. IRVINE had considered them of too recent formation to be worthy of much notice, but I thought differently, and so I submit them to those who are more cognoscent on the subject claiming for myself no more credit in the matter beyond a wish to contribute to this very interesting science such discoveries as mere accidents have thrown in my way.'

We should remember that the specimens, collected on these occasions, are not little hand samples, easily carried about, but bulky masses weighing from one to two maunds each; that they have to be conveyed 3 or 400 miles by land carriage over a difficult country before they can be embarked for another voyage of 600 miles to Calcutta. The care taken in packing them has however been so effectual, that I can safely say we see them now as they left the rocky conglomerate of the Omar nadí bank, from which they were detached nearly a year ago.

* See Journ. As. Soc. vol. ii. p. 586.

More than this, I believe, from an inspection of CUVIER's plates, that the two femurs of the elephant now on the table are as perfect as, if not superior to, any of the sort in the celebrated museum of Paris.

I will now hazard a few observations on the remains of the Narsinhpúr or Segauní elephant.

It may be looked upon as most fortunate that the two bones of this animal, selected for dispatch, are the right and left femora, since it is principally upon the conformation of the condyles of the femur that CUVIER has decided the specific difference of the fossil or extinct, from the existing, varieties of the elephant.

I stated on the examination of the fossil jaw-bone of another elephant from the Brimhán Ghát near Jabalpur, side by side with a recent jaw in our museum, that it was impossible to discover any such distinction as should constitute a difference of species*. But the case is very different now : the magnitude, as well as the peculiarities of structure, of the present animal, at once pronounce it to be the "mammoth," or elephas primigenius of BLUMENBACH. The head is not forthcoming to confirm this conjecture, having, according to the tradition of the village, been washed down the river seventy years ago: one tooth only was obtained from a Thákur in the neighbourhood, but that has not yet reached us :-Dr. Row (to whose care we are indebted for the dispatch of the specimens from Benares) writes, that he has sent it by another opportunity: however, the expressions and drawings of CUVIER accord so perfectly with the bone before us, that no reasonable doubt can be entertained even in the absence of the teeth. He thus describes its conformation :

[ocr errors]

La tête inferieure du femur m'a fourni un caractére distinctif tressensible dans son échancrure entre les deux condyles, qui se réduit à une ligne étroite," (see figures 5 and 6,)" au lieu d'un large enfoncement qu'on voit dans les deux espèces vivantes," (see figures 2 and 8.)

The peculiarity was remarked in the Siberian mammoth, in the fossil elephant of Constadt, in that of Florence, and in all others, indeed, which were examined by this eminent naturalist; and here we find the same characteristic in another individual at this distant part of the globe. Doctor J. TYTLER has obligingly furnished me with the femur ofa modern elephant, to render the comparison more obvious. (It is depicted as fig. 1 of the plate, in an exact relative proportion to the fossil bones.) Doctor TYTLER's bone belongs to a young animal, if the detachment of the epiphysis be taken as a test of its age; but the same detachment is apparent in the round head of the left fossil femur also (fig. 9,) and in the condyles of another very large specimen, distinct from the other

* Vol. ii. p. 585.

two (figure 11); so that as far as regards age the fossil and recent bones are by no means unfit for a comparison of magnitude inter se. Judging from the plates of elephant skeletons, it appears that the height of the crown of the animal's skull from the ground is from 37, to 3 of the length of the femur; and the height to the top of the shoulder is 24 of this length; the latter is, I believe, the mode of estimating the height of the elephant.

The recent femur, measuring 40 inches exactly, would thus give an animal of nine feet high, which is by no means a small elephant in the present day; while the ratios between several measurements of the fossil and recent bone are as follows:

The length of the femur itself was fortunately taken by Dr. SPILSBURY, while it remained whole, and attached to the rocky matrix ; otherwise the length deduced from the measurement of its parts alone would have needed some confirmation to obtain implicit credence.

[blocks in formation]

Mean ratio of the fossil to the existing species, 1.63 There is a very satisfactory agreement between all these measurements, and we may be warranted therefore in fixing as the height of our fossil animal 9 × 1.63, or 142 feet: 15 feet was the estimate at first made from the proportion of the bones in CUVIER'S work.

Thus, a femur of an African elephant 1.11 metre, or 43.7 inches long, denoted an animal of 93 feet: and

[ocr errors]

=

The longest of the entire fossil bones accurately measured by CAMPER was 52 Rhenish inches, 53.9, indicating a height of 12 feet 2 inches. Si l'on pouvoit se fier aux measures rapportées dans la gigantomachie, le femur du pretendu Teutobochus auroit été encore plus grand, puisqu'il auroit eu cinq pieds de long; et néanmoins cette dimension n'indiqueroit qu'un individu de quatorze pieds du haut: ce qui ne surpasse point ce que les relations nous disent des éléphans vivans dans les Indes." It is evident from this passage, that no entire specimen of the magnitude of our fossil had been seen at Paris. There was in the

museum, however, the head of a femur from the Pyrénees measuring 8.6 inches in diameter, indicating an individual of 14 feet 8 inches according to CUVIER: a téte inferieure from the Bog belonging to an animal of 15 feet and another from Montserrat of the same dimensions.

All of these support the measurement we have assumed of about 15 feet for our specimen, and prove it to be certainly one of the most complete, as well as one of the largest remains of this magnificent quadruped of which even the museums of Europe can boast.

None of the animal matter of these bones remains: it is replaced entirely by carbonate of lime, not by silex as was the case with the specimen of imbedded bone from Brimhan Ghắt. In the hollow interior of the femur, long interwoven and pendent stalactites of calcareous matter have been deposited, which shew that the bone must have been incased in the rock in nearly a perpendicular position; it is also remarkable that there are two series of these fibrous stalactites forming a considerable angle with one another, as if the position of the mass had been at one period altered. Towards the ends of the bones the cavity is entirely filled with the calcareous deposit.

Plate XXIV. represents different views of the two fossil femora in their relative proportion to the modern bone.

Fig. 1. Fig. 2. condyles.

References to the Plate.

Modern femur of a young elephant of 9 feet high.

View of the lower end of ditto, to shew the separation between the

Fig. 3. Head of the left femur of the fossil species, broken off towards the shaft, but originally found united with

Fig. 4.

The lower extremity of the same bone.

Fig. 5. Is a portion of the shaft of the same bone at the narrowest part: the stalactitic formation in the interior is partially visible at the lower extremity. Fig. 6. End view of fig. 4, to shew the conformation of the condyles united, or meeting, as described in CUVIER'S Ossemens Fossiles.

Figs. 7, 8. are from CUVIER'S Plate in Oss. Foss. vol. i. to shew their accordance with the above. 7, the fossil; and 8, the existing, species.

Figs. 9, and 10, are the same fragments of the right fossil femur, viewed on the inside. They are in as perfect a state as the left femur, excepting that the epiphysis of the ball of the thigh is detached and lost. Its place is shewn by

a dotted line.

Fig. 12. Is a petrified bone of still larger dimensions than the preceding, but not so well preserved. It seems from the curved depression at h', and the rudiments of condyles at f', g', to be the lower end of a femur. This fragment weighs 11⁄2 mans, and it is nearly one-fourth larger than figs. 4 and 10; figs. 12, 13.

Fossil buffalo.

With regard to the fossil skull, supposed by Dr. SPILSBURY to be that of a buffalo, from Hoshangábád, the same good fortune has in this instance also attended his discovery: for as the condyles of the

femur were chosen by CUVIER for one of the distinguishing types of the fossil elephant, so it happens that the forehead and skull, with or without the horns, are the only parts upon which reliance can be placed for determining the specific character of the ruminantia.

The present specimen is, with exception of the horns, as perfect as could be desired; the expanse of the forehead has its bony surface uninjured, shewing the suture along the middle, (which is a sign that the animal was not aged) and the attachment and bony process of the left horn. On the under side, the condyles of the occiput protrude through the stony mass; and by carefully chiselling away some of the stone, the position and form of the teeth on either side of the jaw have been exposed to view. All the interior of the skull is filled with the hard calcareous sandstone.

The direction of the horns in the Hoshangábád fossil skull give it at first sight the appearance of a buffalo's head: and the convexity and breadth of the forehead as well as the angle of the occiput, both tend to rank it with this genus: or at least certainly to separate it widely from the aurochs and the domestic ox, as described in the following perspicuous passage on the specific difference of these animals by the Baron CUVIER.

"Le front du bœuf est plat et même un peu concave: celui de l'aurochs est bombé, quoiqu'un peu moins que dans le buffle; ce meme front est carré dans le bœuf, sa hauteur étant à peu près égale à sa largeur, en prenant sa base entre les orbites; dans l'aurochs en le mesurant de même, il est beaucoup plus large que haut, comme trois a deux. Les cornes seut attachées, dans le bœuf, aux extrémités de la ligne saillante la plus élevée de la tête, celle qui sépare l'occiput du front; dans l'aurochs, cette ligne est deux pouces plus en arrière que la racine des cornes; le plan de l'occiput fait un angle aigu avec le front dans le bœuf; cet angle est obtus dans l'aurochs; enfin ce plan de l'occiput quadrangulaire dans le bœuf, represente un demi-cercle dans l'aurochs. Ces caractères assignés à l'espèce du bœuf, ne sont pas seulement ceux d'une ou deux variétés; ils se sont trouvés constans, non-seulement dans tous nos boeufs et vaches ordinaires, mais encore dans toutes les variétés étrangères que nous avons examinées."

Those acquainted with the comparative anatomy of the Indian species will be able to say whether these distinctions are here also equally marked, and consequently to pronounce at once on the character of the fossil skull. The latter has no point of resemblance to the fossil ox of the Mississippi, described and depicted in the second volume of the Ann. Lyc. Nat. Hist. of New York, page 280.

None of the fossil skulls, depicted in the Ossemens Fossiles, at all resemble the present specimen: neither do the dimensions of the

« PreviousContinue »